


Sleeping Together

by ScullyLovesQueequeg



Category: The X-Files
Genre: Complete, F/M, Ficlet, season 7
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-20
Updated: 2016-06-20
Packaged: 2018-07-16 05:17:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 529
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7253989
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ScullyLovesQueequeg/pseuds/ScullyLovesQueequeg
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A short ficlet I wrote based on something my friend drew.</p><p>Edit: <a href="http://mostly-meggles.deviantart.com/art/I-Can-t-Sleep-Mulder-616082964">link to the picture</a><br/>I'm a genius and forgot to link to the picture.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sleeping Together

**Author's Note:**

  * For [SpyderScully](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpyderScully/gifts).



He didn't need to hear the door open to know that Scully had left the room once again. From where he sat on the couch, the weight displacement caused by her movement from the bed to the doorway was enough that he could tell someone had made a significant motion.

  
He refused to acknowledge her presence nearby, instead, simply continuing the task of reading.

  
“…Mulder?” Mulder glanced up at the sound of his name, and when he made eye contact with her, he made a small gesture of welcoming.

  
Instead of joining him, she remained at the door, playing around with the hem of her tank top with the timidness of a young girl exhibiting her Sunday best.

  
“…I can't sleep,” Her voice is soft, afraid. “I'm worried. What if—what if it doesn't take?”

  
The question hung in the air, and was the metaphorical elephant in the room, both in size and in the way it weighed in their minds, too. Mulder didn't have an answer—at least not without a white lie. IVF was tricky, it was expensive, and it was something that had a chance to not work.

  
“Then we’ll try again,” He spoke, his tone matching her's. He made a motion to call her over, but she remained rooted, this time both her hands playing with the hem of her pajamas. It was the most exposed she had dared to get around him, save that first night they shared that case, and yet, it was not the most exposed he had seen her; that had been when she approached him and asked if he could be her sperm donor. The situation itself was almost a distant memory.

  
He wasn't sure how to comfort her, so he began to read again, allowing her to make her own choice to join him or not. It had been something that they had agreed on, that he would not push her if she was not ready, and she would do the same.

  
It only took a few minutes for her to decide, and he could feel the couch move slightly when she climbed on it, and moved to lay against him. He moved his book to allow her to settle, and brought his other arm around her. Her frame shook, ever so slightly, and he was taken by the overwhelming urge to protect her. She hung on to him, not out of fear, but of desire, wanting desperately the human connection that they had only shared in fleeting moments.

  
They said nothing. Mulder continued to read as though she had not been there, and Scully found her comfort in the steady beating of his heart—a heart that was impossibly too big, and far too scarred to be of any use, but working as hard as it could.

  
The beat made her drift off into sleep after a little while, and when Mulder was aware that she had fallen asleep, he lowered his book, moving just slightly so that he could plant a gentle kiss on her head. She moved against him in her sleep, and Mulder kept his arm around her, and soon drifted off to sleep himself.


End file.
